Culture Clash
Culture Clash
A Samurai warrior serves his master and does what he is asked to the point of death, bravely and unquestioningly.
A man of honor. A culture of honor.
If the warrior fails at the given task he returns to his master, owns his failure, and prepares to kill himself. The Lord may interrupt the suicide or may decide not to interfere.
The warrior, now a man of shame. A culture of shame.
The ‘Shame-Honor’ culture is the group name of collectivistic cultures. Truth comes from tradition and consensus.[i]
The Shame-Honor culture still exists today in Japan as we hear of children wanting to get into good schools to make their parents proud, CEOs publically apologizing with heads bowed for the failure of a business before committing suicide, and bowing the eshaku bow at 15°, or the kerei bow at 30°, or the seikeirei at 45°.[ii]
When the head of Goya Foods spoke words of praise for President Trump there were two strong reactions in social media; buy more Goya beans- honor- and boycott Goya-shame. Although the US isn’t a Shame-Honor culture per se; ‘Cancel Culture’ uses shame and honor to bring about behavior changes in the U.S. also.
Papua New Guinea is a Shame-Honor culture like Japan. Children born with disabilities are hidden away in the back of a hut for years at a time to not bring shame. At a funeral, a huge display of grief brings honor to the deceased. Along. with derision and laughter, the term
“long-long” is called out to anyone who acts in an unexplainable way, most likely a person struggling with mental health issues. Milingnange struggled with schizophrenia for years, but no one ever told us of his strange behavior until after the shame of his murdering my father. He was also a respected, educated man, a schoolteacher who had worked with my Dad on Bible translation over the years. He had delusions, acted strangely, and disappeared for days at a time into the rainforest. These behaviors were uncovered only when my mother asked about them in private.
The psychiatrist–there was only one in the country–was assigned by the court to testify at my father’s murder trial. I applaud that man because he went out to the village and met with the family and villagers to ask about Milingnange’s behavior. He spent much time trying to formulate a correct diagnosis and recommendation, but in the village no one spoke of Milingnange’s strange behavior because it would have brought shame to the Nabak. Based on that limited information, the psychiatrist recommended that Milingnange’s psychosis was brought on by his being away from his family and that returning him to his remote village was the best thing for him. As a result, he received a sentence of ‘time served’ in the psychiatric ward of the hospital and was returned to a village with no access to medications or mental health resources. Milingnange’s actions brought shame because he was in jail, because he had committed murder, and not only mundane, everyday murder–if such a things exists–but the murder of a white missionary. Shortly after returning to his home village, surrounded by those who likely knew him best, shrinking before their accusing stares or–perhaps worse–utterly ignored due to the shame of his crime, he commited suicide.
It is into this complicated context that Wycliffe Associates does two-week translation training workshops. Does their MAST process mesh well in a Shame – Honor culture? Let’s find out!
During the long process of my parents working with Nabak people to translate the New Testament into the Nabak language of Papua New Guinea, my parents valued accuracy above speed. One step that Wycliffe Bible Translators takes to ensure accuracy is called Consultant Checking.
Judy Rehberg was my Mom’s favorite consultant. She started each day with prayer and assuring the Nabak person who was new to the translation that their opinion was valued. “Help us to make this translation as accurate as you can.” Courteous and kind, she was also firm on accuracy and would ask for things to be fixed before giving her approval. While my Dad did more of the first draft translation, my Mom did more of the checking. On one of those days, a Nabak man, Zuke, reviewed the translation with my Mom and Judy in the study cubicle.
As the morning progressed, it seemed to be going quickly. Zuke agreed with each verse. Mid-morning coffee break is a sacred time in Papua New Guinea. Judy left the room, and Zuke asked, “There is a problem here, but I don’t want to embarrass you in front of this lady, can I say it?”
“Yes, please. Say anything you need to say. It won’t shame me. It will be a waste of your time, my time and Judy’s time if you don’t say what you think,” my Mom affirmed.
Even with expressly-stated permission and knowing that was the whole reason for meeting with Judy, Zuke feared that he would bring shame to my Mom in front of someone that she valued. His culture taught him that nothing should be said that might break the harmony.
Let me ask: How might this concern over breaking harmony interfere with the MAST process? I see this as being a problem in at least two areas.
1) Peer edit: The Peer Edit stage is where “The Bible translators trade portions and check each other’s work, suggesting edits or changes to the translator of that portion.”[iii]
So, two people sit together. Who are these two people to each other?
- Maybe they are strangers who don’t know the power balance of the relationship, and so they say nothing.
- Or it might be they are pastor and church attendee–a clear power imbalance –so they assume the attendee will always agree with the pastor’s point of view, even if erroneous.
- Are they related by marriage, such as a son-in-law who will do anything to maintain harmony with his father-in-law?
Will this end in an accurate translation if, in their culture, it isn’t proper to correct another person? If your culture teaches you to do everything to avoid shame, how would you dare make recommendations to another translator, let alone point out a mistake?
I’m a teacher and having taught editing, self-reflection, peer conferencing skills I know that these are not just an innate ability. Students need to be taught from grade to 12th grade. In first grade they learn to look back over their work to see if they can catch their errors. In 12th grade AP classes they learn to edit their own or others writing by answering questions like: Is there a clear and focused thesis based on the prompt? Is the key vocabulary from the prompt consistent throughout the paper? Is the evidence relevant, well-explained, developed, integrated and substantial enough to actually support the points being made? If not, give suggestions to the author.
Should students of Bible translation also be taught editing skills?
2) Feedback: As the workshop proceeds, the international trainers ask, “How is it going? Is this productive for you? Do you understand this? Are you learning a lot? Is this the best way to say it? Do you agree with him? Will you keep working on it after we leave? What other resources do you need?” The translator will always respond in a way that will bring about harmony, even if it is not necessarily the honest answer. While we would call this lying, they see it as putting others’ needs above their own.
They think:
- This man came all the way from America, so I must honor him and praise him.
- This woman is an expert. I will be a good student and show her that I learned everything the first time and not question her.
- This scripture needs another draft, but he is telling me it’s time to move on, so I will.
- My pastor chose that key-word, so I will use that one, too.
- I must harvest my rice all of the next month, but I don’t want to embarrass him, so I will tell him I will translate every day.
- He’s given me all these tools on the computer that he thinks are so helpful, but I don’t have electricity in my village. Still, I don’t want to embarrass him, so I will smile and bring honor to my people by participating well.
To really do translation well, you need to teach and practice the concepts of translation, of linguistics, and of the Bible. Besides that, there are cultural skills that are editing, self-reflection, and how to give and take feed-back in a culturally appropriate way.
Wycliffe Associates prides itself on using only national translators as mother-tongue-speakers but it is more than just a basic level of language ability. It is also an awareness of this Shame-Honor culture that the MAST process doesn’t take into account.
The Wycliffe Associates MAST process is flawed from the beginning if it doesn’t take cultural clashes into account.
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